Building DIY Gardening

A shocking case of sacking whistleblowers, John Bromilow and Harry Wildman, repair staff working in Liverpool Prison. Amey, a building contractor, had just got the contract for prison repairs, and decided to reduce staff by having one man teams (ie, an individual) doing repairs, instead of two men, as had always been the case prior. […]

Turn London into an urban park? What a great idea. This is not really some crowd concept, it has to come from legislation on: green aspects of new developments (mostly, green features in the initial artist’s impression stage, all removed when built) front gardens and conversion to drives and mini car parks (use grass-crete, or […]

There is a summary article about the Green Deal flagship Conservative policy here: Green deal will fail (new window) > The Green Deal is supposed to help regenerate old building stock, by giving loans for work such as insulation, etc. Unfortunately there are financial strictures based around a return of 6.9% which means works have to […]

New Government self-build scheme to help people building houses. This was announced by Grant Shapps the Housing Minister on 7 July 2012. Kevin McCloud is involved. The idea is to release Government land so people can build houses on it. To build a home is admirable but a large project for a young first-time buyers, […]

There is a new ‘web portal’ for all things self-build. This is created by The National Self Build Association (NaSBA). It is independent of Government and has Kevin McCloud on the front. Bit short on actual advice. In Technical Documents, there is one pdf on Health and Safety in the Workplace. Information is general, as […]

The Conservative government’s decision to more than halve the FIT (feed-in tariffs) for electricity put back into the grid (from sources such as solar power) from 43 to 21p per kilowatt hour, as reported here on Building DIY previously, has been attacked by the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) as disastrous for the solar and […]

This is to update the blog about the companies that fit solar PV panels for free. The Conservative Government is reducing the FIT rate by half from December 12th 2011. Any solar PV panels installed and also registered with an energy company will qualify. So it is no good booking it in as the waiting […]

Like many households in Britain, we have received leaflets through our door about fitting free PV (photovoltaic) solar panels, with free use of the generated electricity. This sounds too good to be true as even a small system can cost well over £10,000 so what is the deal? Is it a scam? How does it […]

Went along to the installation in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. The building is an old power station converted into a vast art gallery – a bit like an Art Mall – styled to be a bit modern, a bit industrial, a bit futuristic. The Turbine Hall is the […]

David Snell is a Contributing Editor to Home Building & Renovating Magazine, and he and some other experts are giving some talks at the National Self Build and Renovation Centre off the M4 in west Swindon. So if you are worried your new extension might fall foul of some local Inspector, you’d better get over […]